Do you regularly lose sleep watching your smartphone, waiting for an email? Do you feel bereft if you leave your phone at home or forget your charger? Such angst has a label - nomophobia – and mental health researchers fear it may be harming our health.
The term is short for ''no mobile phone phobia'' – fear of being without a mobile. It was coined by British researchers tasked to report on anxiety in mobile phone users for the UK Post Office. It's now being taken more seriously as a legitimate problem and is being mentioned in peer reviewed studies by mental health experts globally. Italian researchers say it should be treated as seriously as other mental disorders.
Psychologists at the University of Genoa say nomophobia is an emerging problem requiring inclusion in the “golden standard” psychiatric diagnostic manual, the DSM-V, which traditionally concentrates on phobias related to the natural world or fear of the environment.
The issue of phone attachment is real in Australia, with half the population – 11.19 million – using smartphones as of May, 2013. That’s a 29 per cent yearly rise, according to Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) data.
We adorn ourselves with devices by strapping them to our bodies during exercise; clutching chargers; glancing at phones in the cinema and theatre and sleeping alongside phones.